Countries around the world are working to build more resilient and self-sufficient solar manufacturing ecosystems, particularly in light of recent geopolitical developments. This has placed the spotlight firmly on the technologies, tools, and materials that enable high-efficiency, cost-effective production. Production equipment plays a central role, not just in setting up new fabs, but also in influencing technology choices and material utilization. One of the most critical aspects of equipment is capital expenditure (CapEx), and manufacturers have made impressive progress in reducing the overall investment required to establish a production line. Along with improved yields and equipment uptime, this has resulted in a significant boost in the cost-performance ratio.
The key contributor is the considerable increase in production equipment throughput, with tools now capable of supporting more than a gigawatt of annual production capacity. The PV manufacturing space is currently represented by 3 technologies on the commercial front. TOPCon, without doubt, is the mainstream technology today, but HJT and BC are also in mass production. All this has been made possible by innovations in production equipment, as is also reflected in our latest TaiyangNews Cell Production Equipment Report.
As a follow-up, TaiyangNews is now organizing a virtual conference to expand the coverage and dialogue on production equipment. And as a logical extension, the conference will also cover innovations in module manufacturing. Notable among these innovations is the zero-busbar technology, with several variants currently in existence. Modules are increasingly becoming application-specific through BOM optimization. The module section of solar manufacturing, in addition to delivering high performance, also needs to safeguard another vital characteristic – reliability.
The TaiyangNews Cell & Module Production Equipment & Processing Materials Conference will discuss recent advancements in production equipment and process consumables along the cell and module production chain.
